Sunday, 12 April 2015

McLaren Honda had a great Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai
International Circuit on Sunday as for the first time this season the Woking
based outfit were able to bring both cars home with Fernando Alonso finishing
the race in 12th place.

Jenson Button would have finished the race
in 13th place however the 2009 world champion was handed a post-race
time penalty for causing a collision with the Lotus F1 Team’s Pastor Maldonado.

Button was also handed two penalty points on his FIA Super
Licence. Fernando Alonso started the race from 18th place on the
grid and finished the event in 12th place. Speaking following the
race the double world champion stated:

‘This
wasn’t the easiest race for us. We weren’t very competitive at the beginning,
then we had a few issues with the aero behaviour of the car, which slowed me
down in the middle stint, but I was able to push a bit harder on the soft tyre
at the end of the race.

“We still need to learn a lot more about this car in order to
extract its maximum, but an afternoon like today was extremely useful for us as
it enabled us to better understand the car.

“It was a useful race for me too: my longest stint during winter
testing was 12 laps; in Malaysia, I did 22; and here I completed the race, so
this is a step forward.

“Hopefully, we can improve again for Bahrain.’

Despite his
penalty Button felt that the team are progressing and but admitted that the
outfit need to improve at every race. Speaking following the race the 2009
world champion stated:

‘Today
wasn’t too bad – we’re still fighting at the back of the field, which is a
shame, but it’s positive to see that we’re progressing.

“My middle stint on the Option tyre wasn’t too bad – I don’t
think our pace was too bad at all on the softer tyre – but the Prime was a bit
trickier in those closing laps. A lot of that was due to all the blue flags and
traffic I encountered – they meant the tyre temperatures dropped off quite a
bit through the stint. It wasn’t easy.

“Regarding the collision with Pastor, I thought there was room
on the inside – a collision is something you never want to see happen. It was
just a misjudgment, I guess.

“Still, we go to Bahrain hoping for more progress, although the
circuit configuration doesn’t suit us, so heading to Europe will hopefully work
out a little bit better for the team.

“We need to improve at every race because we’re quite a way
back.’

McLaren Honda
have yet to score a point in their new partnership as they continue to
establish their partnership. Speaking following the race, McLaren Racing
Director Eric Boullier stated:

‘First,
it’s a real positive for the entire team that we managed to get two cars to the
finish with no issues whatsoever during the race. I think that’s a great reward
for Honda, and we should congratulate them – today’s double-finish is the
result of an enormous amount of hard work, much of which goes unappreciated, so
I want to personally thank everybody working in Woking, Sakura and Milton
Keynes for their efforts. It’s great that we’re starting to make solid
progress.

“Second, our race pace showed further improvement: Jenson drove
strongly in the middle stint, and Fernando was reasonably quick relative to the
others in the final stint.

“Fighting towards the back of the pack still isn't where we want
to be. We know we’re not in a position to fight for points yet – but, little by
little, we’re getting there. And we must keep pushing to ensure there are
improvements coming for every race.”